LIVES

OF

THE BRITISH PAINTERS.

COSWAY.

RICHARD COSWAY was born, in the year 1740, at Tiverton, in Devonshire. His father was master of the public school there; his uncle was for some time mayor; and the family (originally Flemish) owned considerable property in the town and neighbourhood. One of his ancestors, a person of substance, and skilful in the manufacture of woollen cloth, emigrated, in the reign of Elizabeth, from the Low Countries, to escape oppression of body and soul under the fierce Duke of Alva; and, establishing the woollen manufacture at Tiverton, grew rich and prosperous, and purchased the estate of CombeWillis, within some five miles of that place. The connection of the family with Flanders, and a taste for works of art, which it seems some of the elder Cosways possessed, had brought various pictures

of the Flemish school, among the rest two from the hand of Rubens, to Tiverton ; and it is alleged that the sight of these awoke a love for painting in the mind of Richard, which, at first, met with but little sympathy at his father's fireside. The master of Tiverton school saw, with astonishment, his son, at the age of seven years, neglecting his lessons, devoting all his time to what he called "the idle pursuit of drawing." Admonition first, and then chastisement, were employed without effect; and it was only on the interposition of his uncle, the mayor, and a judicious neighbour, of the name of Oliver Peard, that the boy was permitted to make drawings during such periods as could be spared from his education. În process of time the rude outlines of the young artist became more elegant and regular; and by the time he was thirteen years old, his sketches were of such promise as to warrant his removal to London, where he was placed, first, under Hudson, with whom Reynolds had studied, and next under Shipley, who kept a drawing-school in the Strand. The expense of his studies was defrayed by his uncle, the mayor, and by Oliver Peard; nor did Cosway prove unworthy of their care and generosity: his skill in drawing became so great, that in the course of a few years he obtained no less than five premiums, some of five, and one of ten guineas, from the Society of Arts. The first was conferred when he was but fourteen years the last when he was under fourand-twenty.

old;

Of the early days of the artist, Smith gives, in his own rough style, a very different account:—

"Cosway," says he, "when a boy, was noticed by Shipley, the proprietor of the drawing-school in the Strand, who took him to wait upon the students, and carry in the tea and coffee, which Mr. Shipley's housekeeper was allowed to provide, and for which she charged three-pence per head. The students, among whom were Nollekens and my father, good temperedly gave Dick, for so he was called, instructions in drawing, and also advised him, finding him to have some talent, to try for a prize in the Society of Arts." Smith must have had this account from his father, or from Nollekens; but from enquiring among the connections of Cosway I have learnt nothing which confirms the story. much that contradicts it. That a youth related to opulent families, and supported in his studies by the voluntary aid of admiring neighbours, should have been obliged to become a waiter in such a place as Shipley's, is hardly credible, and must be rejected as a fiction. There is more truth in the statement, that he was employed to make drawings of heads for the shops, as well as fancy miniatures, and free subjects for snuff-boxes for the jewellers, mostly from ladies whom he knew; and from the money he gained, and the gaiety of the company he kept, he rose from one of the dirtiest of boys to one of the smartest of men."

This very natural change arose from the money he made in the art of miniature painting, in which he was acknowledged a master. The skill with which he could bring an ill-formed face within the rules of beauty, communicate lustre to eyes naturally dull, and colour to cheeks from

which the rose had fled, and yet maintain enough of likeness to the original, was not likely to go unrewarded. To rise from indigence to affluence, and step out of the company of indifferent daubers into that of lords and ladies of high degree, could not be accomplished, Cosway imagined, without putting on airs of superiority, and a dress rivalling that of an eastern ambassador. His affectation was not unobserved by his brethren: his fine clothes, splendid house, and black servant, were offences after their kind; and caricaturists gratified their spite and replenished their pockets by satirising him as the "Macaroni Miniature Painter." The man whom Dighton drew, and Earlom engraved, was likely soon to be heard of; and their united lampoon upon him, as "Billy Dimple sitting for his Picture" (now very rare), had no small effect at the time. Nor has Smith failed to favour us with a sitting of Cosway in his days of state and solemnity; he is a master in wardrobe painting. "I have often," said he, "seen Cosway at the elder Christie's picture sales, full dressed in his sword and bag, with a small three-cornered hat on the top of his powdered toupée, and a mulberry silk coat profusely embroidered with scarlet strawberries." Such was the dress of those whom princes delighted to honour, before change, as with a besom, swept away, among some worse and many worthier things, all this magpie splendour.

The consequence which Cosway thus early in life assumed, he was prepared to maintain both by his talents and assiduity. He seems not to have coveted earnestly the applause which follows the